Meeting held to discuss the status of heritage trees in Chandigarh.

Chandigarh (Aditi) Justice Jitender Chauhan (Retd) chaired a meeting today to discuss the status of heritage trees in Chandigarh. The unfortunate incident at Carmet Convent school caused unrepairable damage to human life. Various aspects were taken into consideration during this meeting, some of which were prevention of recurrence of such instances and protocol for the upkeep of heritage trees.

The commission has been working towards ascertaining the reasons and to fix the responsibility that caused the incident, but as the only witness, Smt. Sheela, the attendant who also got injured is not in the healthy state to record any statement, therefore the commission has decoded to wait for her well being to proceed into the matter .

Following the incident at Carmel Convent School, a committee was also constituted comprising of officers from Engineering Department, Municipal Corporation and Forest Department for cutting of trees that can pose danger to human lives.

It was also deliberated that apart from tagging the trees, what other steps can be taken as precautionary measures.

A team of FRI led by Dr R Ezumalai also visited Chandigarh to have Ultrasonic study (Non destructive method) for estimating hollowness of standing trees in respect of Heritage Trees ofChandigarh. It is also aimed to have technological intervention to find the hollowness by use of acoustics or ultrasound waves for detecting deterioration in wood structural members and to detect internal defects apart from having magnitude of the deterioration inside the main tree trunks for different girths which will help either to take timely precautions for the safety of the valuable tree by giving suitable treatment for conservation of trees.

Sh. Justice (retd) Jitender Chauhan and Dr Abdul Qayum of Dept of Forests and Wildlife also visited the site. This study is aimed to have better management of Urban Forestry which will enable the Department to take timely decision for removal of hazardous trees for the safety of human life and property.